MOOSE JAW — A Moose Jaw-raised filmmaker is turning heads in Canada’s independent film scene with a haunting short that explores fear, pain and identity — all through the eyes of a man getting his first tattoo.
Jett Kowalchuk, now based in Saskatoon, is the creator of John’s First Tattoo, a silent surrealist horror short that recently earned him accolades from several prominent festivals, including the Saskatchewan International Film Festival and the Yorkton Film Festival, the latter of which is the longest continuously running film festival in North America.
Raised in Moose Jaw and shaped by its quiet gravity, Kowalchuk now lives in Saskatoon — but the city still clings to him, almost like ink beneath the skin.
His latest project, John’s First Tattoo, follows an unassuming office worker who ventures far outside his comfort zone to get his first piece of body art. What begins as a simple act of self-expression quickly descends into a twisted journey through an alien and unnerving world — with no dialogue to guide the audience, only stark visuals and atmospheric tension.
“It’s sort of a surrealist horror take on the subject matter,” Kowalchuk explained. “The story is very personal to me … anyone who has any tattoos, of course, they’ve had to get their first one, and it could be sort of a nerve-wracking experience. You are making a decision, essentially, to change your body and your skin, physically, forever.”
Kowalchuk said the film was inspired by his own experience getting tattooed — a four-hour process he described as “draining,” “physically painful,” and ultimately transformative.
“There (are a lot of) unspoken truths,” he continued. “When you walk into a tattoo parlour without any tattoos, you’re immediately separated … It can be an isolating feeling, and sort of scary.”
In that sense, horror felt like a natural genre for Kowalchuk to explore.
“I think there’s a lot of overlap between tattoos and horror cinema, specifically (by exploring) the Gothic,” he said. “What I love about surrealist cinema is that it’s able to physically manifest… the mind state of the character.”
Shot on a Canon T7 with a kit lens, the project was created without access to professional-grade film equipment or a traditional crew — a byproduct of Kowalchuk being enrolled in Creative Technologies, not film, at the University of Regina. Despite these constraints, he handled every part of production himself, from script to visual effects to sound design.
“The advantage of that restraint… was that it made me very intentional with where I put the camera,” he said. “You can still perceive a sort of striking imagery.”
The gamble paid off. The film has been screened at several festivals across Canada and took home Best Student Director at the Saskatchewan International Film Festival. Kowalchuk said the highlight was Yorkton, where he found himself surrounded by filmmakers from across the continent.
“I didn’t really have any expectations of winning; I was honoured just to be in their company,” he recalled. “And then when John’s First Tattoo was called, I was quite shocked … (I am) incredibly honoured and grateful to the festival to see my vision and … believe in it.”
With the festival circuit winding down, the short will soon be available for public viewing online.
In the meantime, Kowalchuk said he’s already writing several new projects and plans to keep pushing boundaries, bringing life to the stories that refuse to sleep and demand to be made real.
“I don’t think filmmakers get into filmmaking because it’s necessarily a safe choice… it’s because there’s just sort of a sickness in our soul that we need to create. We have these stories in us that we need to tell,” he revealed.
For Moose Jaw’s hometown horror storyteller, the ink is only beginning to dry.
To learn more, and to view the short film once it’s available online, visit JettKowalchuk.com or follow his socials at “jettkomedia.”
